The benefit is not zero, it is having unlimited domains pointed to local without having to ever mess with DNS or /etc/hosts.
We're also talking about maybe 30 seconds of work per project to edit a hosts file. Someone who knows their command line will be able to do it in 5 seconds. Multiplied by 20 projects, that's still only 2 to 10 minutes of work every year.
I personally use localhost for everything and just work on one thing at a time. I never mess with hosts.
1. https://davejamesmiller.com/blog/installing-dnsmasq-wildcard...
2. http://mayakron.altervista.org/wikibase/show.php?id=AcrylicH...
If I'm working on a feature related to that process I could create and delete a dozen or more arbitrary domains in a day.
I also know plenty of web development teams that are less technical and could deal without manual hosts file tweaking on a daily basis.
I also use multiple computers. With this domain, I never have setup Dnsmasq, never have to edit a hosts file, never have to edit DNS.
Being obsessed with automation and efficiency, anywhere I can save a few seconds, I will.
I just make my CLI tools update my hosts file.
*.local.computer all points to 127.0.0.1 - when I want localhost subdomains, I want unique IPs too (so e.g. I could bind different httpds to 127.0.0.1:80 and 127.0.0.2:80, or other evil thing I've thought up)